With the UK due to leave the European Union on 31st October 2019, the Home Office are currently in consultation with stakeholders regarding the UK’s future immigration system. The Home Office published a policy paper in December 2018 setting out their plans for a new skills based immigration system once the UK leaves the EU. The Home Office wants to introduce a new immigration system for everyone, regardless of country of nationality, based on the skills and talent of the migrant.
One of the proposals for the new immigration system is to maintain a minimum salary threshold. This would mean that migrants who wish come to the UK to work would need to be paid a minimum amount of money in order to be sponsored to work for an employer. In the policy paper, the Home Office proposed that the minimum salary threshold could be as high as £30,000 per year. However, only last week, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid asked the Migration Advisory Committee to review and advise on the possible salary thresholds. One of the questions that the Home Secretary has asked the Migration Advisory Committee to answer is whether any salary threshold should vary depending on the region of the UK. This raises the question of whether the minimum salary a migrant should be paid in Scotland would be different than that paid elsewhere, for example in the south of England.
The Home Office expect to have a report back from the Migration Advisory Committee in January 2020, with the intention that the new immigration system will be phased in from 2021. At the moment, it is a case of watch this space.